It can also be a way to get some new people in the door. The local nice steakhouse here does a special every 6-8 weeks where they offer a slightly smaller steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and sugar snap peas for $19. This place dry ages their beef and it’s heavenly, but I could only eat there once in a blue moon if it…

I’m REALLY hoping it was one like this:

Hey, now, nobody ever said that following a proper dental hygiene regime was EASY

So long as I can use an unlubed cactus and not have to actually touch them in the process, I’m all for that.

Harry’s a nickname for Henry, so if she’s being all formal, it would be Princess Henry

I absolutely loathe sitting at the bar. I’m 5'2", so my feet dangle like a little kid’s and there’s just no graceful way for me to get up there (or back down). And like you, I have that ‘fat person intrusion’ feeling to contend with as well. I’ll go so far as to say that the one bright spot that’s come with having to…

Absolutely! I’m lucky enough to live in a state where all workers must be paid minimum wage, whether tipped or not (unless they’re working under the table) and it’s SO nice to be able to tip based on the service rather than have to give out that automatic 20% just because I know otherwise my server isn’t earning a…

So true. I got the ‘Santa question’ from Kidlet long before I was ready for him to ask it, and there was a sense of some small magic leaching out of the world when I had to explain the whole ‘Santa exists, but more as a spirit than an actual person’ thing. Prior to that, I’d gone the whole route of tracking snow into…

Very true. I’ve been a single mother for the vast majority of Kidlet’s life. If he hadn’t learned to eat out early, I would’ve spent years trapped in nothing but fast food and chain restaurants. And we did start there, but we emphasized rules and good behavior, so by the time he was 5 or 6, I could take him to the…

This. The closest thing I’ve seen to a bearable version is the Kate Hepburn version, but even that had a lot lacking for me. I just felt like Kate brought a lot more of Jo’s strength and frustration to the role than Winona. I’ve waited a long time for a miniseries adaptation, since I think that’s the only real way…

Bo-ob Traaansgend’r Fetus Climate Change

I checked in with Kidlet, who’s also 19, and got the following suggestions - an mp3 player (he lives and dies by his), a Kindle, and a couple of $20-25 gift cards (he likes McD’s, movie theater, and Red Robin). He says Amazon would work, too. Cash is all very well and good, but both he and I get cash from the…

Oh, God. I’ve so been there, dealing with the ‘new normal’ - I’m sorry you have to walk through this. It’s hard, figuring out what you can and can’t do when things change, and I’m glad it’s not likely to be life-threatening, but life-changing can be right up there on the roughness scale. SNS has been a HUGE help for…

I speak to my mother as little as humanly possible - ie, when she and Dad came over for Kidlet’s graduation and I wasn’t about to be rude enough to blatantly ignore her at the dinner table. Our relationship was never good, and when we finally acknowledged that enough to just not bother, I think it was a relief for…

As an abused child who spent years trying to figure out if relatives/church members/etc were blind or just didn’t care, call CPS. You’ve attempted to talk to the family members directly, but it had no effect. The kids are more important than hurt feelings, and they deserve a chance to have better in their lives. When…

I love your analogy, and I completely agree. I know that for me, the difficulty comes not in having the hard talks, but in penetrating the veil of religion/FOX news/hardcore racism, etc in order to get my message heard. Like trying to talk about diabetes and educate someone who insists on drinking multiple 2-liter…

Use the ketchup that he loves so much instead!

But you’re also not getting anything for your spending. I used to use my debit card all the time for every purchase, until I got a decent credit card and started putting everything on that. I pay it off in full every month (when it was new I sometimes had to pay it off weekly due to a low balance) and between my two…

Don’t worry about trying to process everything right now. It sounds like this is fresh - for the first bit, treat yourself carefully. I second the advice about giving yourself some time to wallow. Take the weekend, watch movies or TV, read, whatever you do when you need to pamper yourself. Then come Monday morning,…

D’awwwww, she is ADORABLE! So glad to hear she’s doing well and her hearing’s okay. And wow, talk about some sweet chubby baby cheeks that demand to be kissed! Enjoy these days, and try to keep copies of your posts - that’s something I bet she’d love to read when she gets older!